Ashleigh has moulded an exciting and rewarding career for herself through a passion for food, starting at Sodexo in 2014 as a line chef and quickly working her way up to the head chef of her site.
It was through this journey that Ashleigh started to understand the benefits of a sustainable and cost-effective food supply chain and was introduced to Yume, a surplus food market that redirects high quality food from going to waste.
Now, after eight years with Sodexo, Ashleigh drives the Yume partnership on the other side of the kitchen as a Supply Chain Coordinator.
In 2018, Sodexo was the first Australian corporate to take the Yume pledge and has increased its pledge amount year on year. To date, Sodexo has diverted more than 360 tonnes of food from going to waste—Ashleigh’s role contributing to this impressive figure.
With the support of Ashleigh and the Supply Management team, Sodexo has diverted 174 tonnes of food through Yume in just 14 months. At this point, Sodexo was on track to exceed the pledge amount made in 2021 to divert 300 tonnes over a three-year period, and the company has since upped its pledge amount to 375 tonnes by 2025.
A role for a budding family
Alongside her aptitude for managing food waste and her hunger to upskill, Ashleigh was motivated to apply for a position in Supply Management as it better aligned with the needs of her young family.
“In 2020 I fell pregnant with my son. I applied for a position in Supply Management as it better aligned with what I was looking for and I was able to return to the workforce full-time after a year of maternity leave,” she said.
Ashleigh said Sodexo couldn’t have been more supportive while starting her young family.
“It’s hard to find a company who will take you after you’ve been on maternity leave and obviously having a child, my options changed,” she said.
With the added benefit of working from home, Ashleigh said this new role has allowed her to spend important time with her family.
“It works for my family. Now I’m now able to watch my son grow up and have the quality time to spend with my two-year-old,” she said.
Committing to a Better Tomorrow
Moving across to the Supply Management team hasn’t just benefited Ashleigh in her personal life, but she said it also allowed her to pursue new career goals while creating a more sustainable future for her family.
“I think it’s very important that we save the world. I want my son to grow up with a saved planet and I believe that starts with the current generation in the workforce,” she said.
Ashleigh said it’s the connections within her team that have supported her to upskill and create meaningful change.
“The team at Sodexo always want you to progress and want to promote internally. It’s benefitted me, that’s for sure,” she said.
Driving the Yume pledge
Ashleigh first became a qualified chef at age 19, then a pastry chef at 21. After working everywhere from restaurants and pubs to patisseries, Ashleigh was eager to learn more and build on her skills. This saw her apply to Sodexo where she extended on her culinary expertise.
Leveraging this unique background in Sodexo’s Supply Management, Ashleigh’s role now sees her directly helping Sodexo carry out its vision of reducing food waste and delivering more variety of produce to consumers, all while reducing costs through greater efficiency.
“As I developed, I was given sole responsibility of purchasing from the Yume platform. My operational experience has really contributed to how I select products and link with our Food Platform team and sites directly to get Yume products into our supply chain,” she said.
“Yume has been the best learning curve for me, being able to hit those targets has just been great.
“More than ever, energy & resources sites are focussed on decreasing waste. It’s a problem that needs to be tackled across all areas of operations, including support services.
“We all need to look at what we can in all areas within our control as every little bit will help create a better future for our children.”
Ashleigh said she is grateful to be working alongside a company that actively helps create a more sustainable future for her family.
Ashleigh encourages anyone looking to grow in their career to consider Sodexo.
“I’ve always enjoyed working with Sodexo. It’s definitely a good career path and there’s so many avenues that you can pursue.”
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